Some Good and Some Bad

So today's appointments were full of a ton of good and a little bad news.  

First, the good news.  Isaiah is cleared for surgery from a respiratory standpoint.  

Daddy and Isaiah celebrate with a rousing game of "Where's the Baby?"

But do you want even better news?

We can start weening Isaiah's C-Pap!

Say whaaaaaaat?!?

We told the doctor how often we take Isaiah off of his C-Pap, and he was very ok with our unofficial ween, and he is confident that Isaiah will do well with his official ween.  Starting after the surgery, Isaiah will be off of his C-Pap for 15 official minutes 2x a day (when he's awake).  After 3-4 successful days, it will go up in 15 minute intervals- off 15 minutes, then 30 minutes, then 45, 60, and so on.  Each interval being tried for 3 to 4 days.  Once we hit 2 hours, Isaiah can be off of his machine during all waking hours.  Once he's successful during the times he's awake, we'll work on nap times and then overnight.  (Then it's GOOD BYE MACHINES!!)

We will be closely monitoring Isaiah's oxygen level, heart rate, and respiratory rate during this ween.  If he shows any signs of distress, the ween will go at a much slower rate.  We've waited months to get to this point, if we have to wait a few more for Isaiah to get stronger, we won't hesitate to put the cannula back on him.  We can't wait until he is tube-free/machine-free, but at the same time, we can; we can wait.  We can and will do whatever is best for him.

Ok, so now that I bet you are all pumped up for us, here's the bad of the day.

We tried calling his Orthopedic doctor but he was out of town, so when I emailed Isaiah's weight to Dr. Bober, I let him know that we were suspicious of a break or two.  We told him we planned to head to the ER after seeing Isaiah's pulmonologist, but he said to come see him instead.  

We believed he had possible fractures in his left arm and leg because they were like dead weight this morning.  Once we got to DuPont though, Isaiah was moving his leg again.  We're still not 100% sure if he had a small fracture that healed that quickly or if some constipation issues were keeping his leg still, but we're just glad to see it moving again.

We all agreed that Isaiah was still self-splinting his left arm.  After some gentle squeezing, Isaiah cried out and got very upset when his humorous got squeezed right above his elbow.  No X-ray was needed; Isaiah has a broken arm.  We're not sure what caused it (besides the OI), but we know he has it.  Because Isaiah is due for surgery this week, we can't keep giving him Ibuprofen, so Dr. Bober wrote a script for pain meds that will be more potent than plain tylenol.  Once we had that, we splinted him to keep him comfortable.  We discussed wrapping his arm against his torso for extra protection, but Dr. Bober's experience is that it wouldn't make much difference given the location of the fracture.

What amazes us is how much he smiles and laughs with a broken arm.  No broken bone is going to bring Isaiah down!

After our long day, Isaiah is passed out in a deep sleep for what is hopefully the night.  And now, we look forward to surgery at the end of the week...sigh.  We'll keep you updated.  Continued prayers for fast healing and a problem-free surgery are appreciated. <3